Over the past two weeks, four developments have pointed to the same shift. AI is now generating ad creative and curating what gets cited, live-event attention is scattering across screens, and audio is claiming a growing share of young audiences’ time.

Together they describe a change in where brand discovery happens: increasingly on surfaces brands don’t own or fully control. Owned channels and search rankings still matter, but they are no longer where the decisive moments take place.

Here’s what changed, and what it means for performance marketing.

1. Is AI Ad Creative About to Become Native to Instagram and WhatsApp?

Meta launched Muse Image, a generative-AI image tool, for consumers on Instagram and WhatsApp in the US, with an AI video generator in development for the Meta AI app.

Muse Image will expand to advertisers and agencies through Meta Advantage+ creative, for uses such as hero images and social assets, and Meta is reducing its reliance on Midjourney in favor of its own model. A feature that lets users alter another person’s public Instagram photos has already drawn privacy concerns.

Our take

Meta’s real edge here is distribution, not the model. It can embed AI creation across apps used by billions, building a feedback loop of engagement and creative data that rivals without comparable platforms cannot easily match.

For advertisers, native AI creative inside Advantage+ could cut production time, but the same capabilities raise consent and brand-safety questions, and the photo-editing feature invites regulatory scrutiny that could slow adoption. The sensible next step is to test AI-generated creative for production speed while setting brand-safety governance early, and to avoid “AI-ifying” users’ public content without clear permission.

2. Does Ranking #1 on Google Still Make You Visible in AI Search?

A high Google ranking no longer guarantees visibility in AI answers. Among the top 1,000 pages cited by ChatGPT, 28.3% have no traditional Google Search ranking, per Ahrefs’ Q1 2026 AI Search Benchmark, which drew on 13 studies, 146 million search-result pages, and 730,000 AI responses.

Only 32.3% of cited pages give brands a way to influence what AI presents, and mentions on YouTube correlated more strongly with AI brand visibility than branded mentions or search volume.

Our take

AI visibility depends on what the wider web says about you, not just your own site. Because large language models lean heavily on non-owned sources such as YouTube, third-party listicles, news, and forums like Reddit, a brand’s own pages are no longer the main lever.

Generative engine optimization (GEO) means cultivating credible off-site coverage, investing in creator relationships and honest reviews, and auditing what AI assistants cite so outdated or wrong information gets corrected. Because AI results change often, that audit has to be a routine rather than a one-off exercise.

3. How Are Brands Reaching Fragmented World Cup Audiences?

With the FIFA World Cup hosted in North America, US fans are following across broadcast, streaming, CTV, and mobile second screens at once. US second-screen social users will reach 143.5 million this year (65.6% of 216.8 million total), with Gen Z penetration at 90.9%, per EMARKETER, and YouTube drew 1.1 billion hours of FIFA livestreaming in the June group stage.

Even so, traditional TV is forecast to hold 62.1% of US adults’ live-sports time through 2028. During tournaments, 36% of sports fans discover brands via search engines, ahead of CTV (29%) and social (21%), per Teads, while US World Cup ad spending, at $830 million, is approaching the roughly $1 billion expected for the 2027 Super Bowl.

Our take

Reach now means showing up consistently across screens, not buying one. Discovery and viewing are blending in real time, so a single broadcast placement no longer captures the audience.

The data points to search and CTV, not only social, as where fans find brands during tournaments, and sports families are a receptive, high-intent group, with 84.2% of sports parents saying it influences their purchases. The larger risk is treating the World Cup as a one-off rather than a durable entry point into growing US soccer culture.

4. Why Is Gen Z Turning to Digital Audio for Mood, Not Just Music?

41% of US Gen Z digital-audio listeners tune in to improve their mood, against 33% of all listeners, per a March 2026 Harris Poll and EMARKETER survey of 2,039 US adults.

Gen Z adults spend 48 hours a month on Spotify’s mobile app, 2.9x the 16.8 hours on YouTube’s, per Comscore, and playlists lead digital-audio time across generations, from 55% of millennials to 65% of Gen X.

Our take

For Gen Z, audio is emotional utility, and that changes the creative brief. If younger listeners reach for audio to manage mood and downtime, messaging built around feeling and connection tends to land better than a hard informational pitch.

The high, habitual time Gen Z spends in audio also makes it a place to build familiarity over time, not just to deliver a one-off spot. Audio creative that matches the listener’s mindset, rather than a repurposed performance script, is likely to do more work.

At Crealytics, we have also seen growing interest in audio as a strategic channel, which is one reason we launched our podcast, Growth Interrupted, to explore the trends shaping modern marketing leadership.

What These Signals Mean for Performance Marketing

The through-line is that attention and discovery are increasingly decided across surfaces brands don’t own: AI answers shaped by third-party content, creator and YouTube coverage, second screens during live events, and audio moments that claim downtime. Owned channels and search rankings still matter, but they are no longer where the decisive moments happen.

For marketing leaders, the practical response is to extend presence into the wider ecosystem, across GEO, creators, reviews, CTV, and audio. It means matching creative to each context rather than repurposing one asset everywhere, and measuring discovery across channels instead of crediting the last touch.

As AI both creates and curates more of what people see, being present and accurately represented across non-owned surfaces becomes a core performance task.

Key Takeaways

· Meta’s Muse Image brings native AI creative to Instagram, WhatsApp, and soon Advantage+. Test it for production speed, but set governance and avoid AI-editing users’ public photos without permission.

· A #1 Google ranking no longer guarantees AI visibility (28.3% of ChatGPT’s top-cited pages don’t rank on Google). Build off-site credibility across YouTube, reviews, and third-party coverage through GEO.

· World Cup attention is fragmented across screens. 36% of fans discover brands via search, ahead of CTV and social; plan consistently across screens and treat soccer as a long-term audience, not a one-off.

· Gen Z uses digital audio to manage mood (41% vs 33% overall) and logs 48 hours a month on Spotify. Build audio creative around feeling, not a hard pitch.

· The common thread: discovery and attention are moving to channels brands don’t own; presence and accuracy across the wider ecosystem is now a performance task.

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Unsure how these updates could impact your campaigns? Reach out to us.

Relevant Insights:

· Article: AI Ad Spending Will Double and More by 2030. What It Means for Search and Chatbot Advertising

· Article: Market Signals #4: AI Moves Deeper Into Advertising Infrastructure

· Article: Why Strong Brands Pay Less for the Same Customer

About Crealytics

Crealytics is an award-winning full-funnel digital marketing agency fueling the profitable growth of over 100 well-known B2C and B2B businesses, including ASOS, The Hut Group, Staples and Urban Outfitters. A global company with an inclusive team of 100+ international employees, we operate from our hubs in Berlin, New York, Chicago, London, and Mumbai.

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